The Inflammatory Clock: How cGAS-STING Ticks in the Aging Ovary

Yanjing Ma^1,2Yu Chen²Xiong Yuan²Tingyu Li^1,2Hao Luo^1,2Yanfang Gu^1,2*

• ¹Jiangnan University Wuxi School of Medicine, Wuxi, China
• ²Wuxi Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Wuxi, China

Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) is more than a fertility issue; it's a silent epidemic of accelerated systemic aging in young women, with current treatments failing to address its root cause. For too long, the relentless decline of ovarian function has been viewed as an inevitable mystery. But what if the ovary holds an internal "inflammatory clock," ticking away with each cellular insult and dictating the pace of its own decline? Here, we spotlight a surprising culprit: the cGAS-STING signaling pathway. Far beyond its day job in antiviral defense, this pathway emerges as a master integrator of ovarian aging. We reveal how stresses like DNA damage and mitochondrial dysfunction leak genetic material into the cell's interior, where cGAS-STING sounds a relentless alarm. This alarm doesn't just trigger inflammation; it initiates a vicious, self-amplifying cycle of cellular senescence, tissue fibrosis, and follicle destruction—a cycle that may explain why ovarian aging often feels like a one-way street. Therapeutically, we move beyond mere symptom management to explore strategies for resetting this inflammatory clock. We dissect both direct "brakes"—novel small molecules that silence cGAS or STING—and upstream "shields" that protect cellular powerplants and genome integrity. Most provocatively, we introduce the concept of "signal reprogramming": not just shutting down the pathway, but cleverly rewiring its output to favor repair over destruction. By repositioning cGAS-STING from a simple sensor to the central processor of ovarian aging, this review charts a course for a new class of therapeutics aimed at preserving ovarian function, not just managing its loss. The goal is no less than transforming our approach to women's reproductive longevity.